Philosophers have a different take on current affairs and pose their own problems. They point out the distance between truth and power. Then it is up to us to choose
intellectuals
Posted inGeneral
We are not all intellectuals
South African artists seem to be outraged by anyone who questions or challenges intellectual capabilities in the sector. I allegedly made a provocative comment about the distinction between an artist and an intellectual. I argued that, generally, local artists are good in what they do and have won awards all over the world. I suggested […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Should we boycott Andile Mngxitama?
By Kameel Premhid and Thorne Godinho “I’m robespierre (sic) I understand my fate … ” Andile Mngxitama, the controversial writer behind the New Frank Talk journal, recently tweeted this. This reference to the executed French revolutionary Maximilien de Robespierre followed the public outrage expressed by individuals when Mngxitama called on ”true Bikoists” to physically assault […]
Posted inGeneral
Why the ANC will rule till Jesus comes
Perhaps you believe our democratic settlement was merely a ruse to get the old white regime to hand over power. When our living legend, Nelson Mandela, finally crosses the ultimate great divide, the whites will at last be driven into the sea. Perhaps you believe the TRC was a trade-off, and the Constitution an elite […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Pantomime of the parvenu
South Africa is a particularly fractious society. Rarely does a week pass without something stirring the country’s intellectuals from their silences. The noise generated by this fractiousness says more, perhaps, about South Africa’s collective neurosis, than it does about anything else. What is amusing to behold, though, is the theatrics of intellectuals that play out […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Where have all our intellectuals gone?
The strange nature of South African democracy in its static economic condition makes the position and function of so-called intellectuals and thought leaders within it very complex and almost dysfunctional. Those who consider themselves intellectuals are not, at face value, critically engaging with the patriarchal, racist and capitalist superpower structure which makes it almost impossible […]